This invention relates, generally, to a system for downloading data via a telecommunications network and, more particularly, to a system for the non-disruptive, scheduled or event driven downloading of data using a telemetry system.
It will be appreciated that a wide variety of information providers can be accessed over the telecommunications network, the Internet, local area networks or combinations thereof from a customer's computer site. Typically, the customer's computer site is connected to an information provider's data base allowing the customer to perform a search or otherwise identify selected data. The customer, after identifying the selected data, enters a data transfer request and the information provider downloads the selected data from its data base to the customer's computer in response to that request. One problem with such a system is that the customer must wait while the data is downloaded where the wait can be significant due to network congestion and/or low data speed connections. Such an operation is inefficient in that the customer must be idle and cannot perform further online functions until the downloading of data is completed. Moreover, because most search requests are made during peak hours, valuable network resources are tied up during the downloading of the data that could be otherwise employed.
It is also known in the art to delay the downloading of data to an off-peak time (i.e., in the middle of the night) to avoid the problems noted above. In such arrangements the information provider establishes a connection to the modem of the customer's computer and the network switching system transmits a power ringing signal over the public switched telephone network to the modem to "wake up" the modem for the data download. It will be appreciated that the power ringing signal is disruptive to the customer, especially for calls made during the middle of the night. Moreover, a regular call with power ringing may be forwarded to another termination (e.g. voice mail) or may be detected by an answering machine or other customer device before the modem goes "off-hook." Both scenarios are unacceptable for data connections. Moreover, these prior art systems require that the modem and computer be fully powered to receive the ringing signal.
An existing system for transferring data is known in the telemetry art where a customer's utility meter is accessed over the telephone network by the controlling utility such that a meter reading can be taken remotely. One telemetry system transmits a suppressed ringing signal to the customer's premise to create a connection without audible ringing and is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,189,694 issued to Garland on Feb. 3, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,644 issued to Garland et al. on Sep. 7, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,461 issued to Garland on Feb. 28, 1995; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,488 issued to Garland on Jul. 5, 1994. Such connections are commonly used by utilities to read utility meters or by other entities to transmit and gather data to and from a remote site. These systems have not been used for the non-disruptive, scheduled or event driven downloading of data to a customer premise.
Thus, a system for the non-disruptive scheduled or event driven downloading of data to a customer premise is desired.